UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s Incident ExplainedA Letter from CEO Alexander Sapov to Drivers Community In Relation to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy “Taxigate” Incident Travel Trends and News %

“What intrigued me most in this case was discovering who selected the 2015 Ford Kuga and why. Here are its dimensions: Height: 1713 mm (5 ft 7 in), Width: 1838 mm (6 ft), Length: 4524 mm (14 ft 10 in)

In my opinion, this is a small vehicle, if not to say one of the smallest for ground transportation, not suited for VIP transportation, although personally, I do appreciate Ford vehicles.

Another puzzling issue relates to GetTransfer as a groundbreaking platform in the travel industry, which we had been multiple awarded for, we are a marketplace that means you select from multiple offers, and this unique opportunity GetTransfer presents to customers. As a marketplace, we offer multiple options for selection. However, in this particular instance, the chosen option appeared to me that it was the worst offer that was selected – someone selecting a beginner driver with inferior vehicle specifications and ratings. Conversely, other available offers included superior rated drivers and cars, notably a premium vehicle from a highly-rated driver (4.7 rating) bearing the ‘Top Selection’ badge, indicating confirmed quality through consistent quality performance with us.

While I myself understand the tendency to opt for lower prices, it’s crucial to remember that if you are dealing with high-ranking government officials and VIPs, and their families, please consider all factors upon selecting. Write to me and ask for our VIP accounts – they are tailored for your needs and we welcome you to do so. I strongly urge all responsible parties to consider ratings, driver experience, user reviews, car models, photos and other critical data exclusively provided on our marketplace. This ensures an informed, balanced decision beyond mere cost considerations. Please refer to our blog for additional insights into factors influencing optimal selection. https://blog.gettransfer.com/trends-in-travel-mobility/how-gettransfer-com-stands-out-from-competitors/

I appeal to all personal assistants worldwide: please pay careful attention to ratings, driver experience, reviews, vehicle types, and all other critical information provided by our marketplace. This will help you make informed and balanced selections. Additionally, I strongly encourage reading this article to better understand the factors influencing these decisions and learn from bad consequences and the associated PR, Direct, Indirect costs and also future costs which you might trigger by your decision. Remember – price isn’t the only factor that matters.

Quality matters just as much, if not more, than the price alone.”, Alexander Sapov, Co-founder and CEO, GetTransfer.com

Strict Prohibition on Post-Booking Fare Increases

As drivers on the GetTransfer platform, you are expected to uphold the highest standards of professionalism and integrity. This means honoring the fare that was agreed upon at the time of booking. Requesting extra cash from a passenger after a trip has been confirmed is completely unacceptable. Such off-platform “side deals” or unauthorized fare changes are explicitly forbidden – they undermine customer trust and violate our service agreements. In many jurisdictions, demanding additional payment beyond the contracted fare is not only against company policy but outright illegal. We want to be very clear: any driver who engages in this behavior risks immediate removal from the GetTransfer marketplace. Our community of drivers and riders depends on mutual trust. We will not hesitate to enforce our zero-tolerance policy to protect honest drivers and passengers.

To reinforce this point, remember the basics of our driver guidelines:

Never ask for additional money outside the platform. The price the passenger accepted through GetTransfer is final and already includes any tolls, taxes, or agreed fees. Demanding a higher price off-platform – whether by claiming a “delay,” “extra luggage,” or any other excuse – is a serious breach of trust.
Communicate through official channels only. All trip details and any issues should be handled via the GetTransfer app or website chat. This protects you and the customer by keeping a transparent record. Drivers who try to take communication offline to negotiate extra charges are often the ones engaging in dishonest practices, which we will not tolerate.
Follow the terms you agreed to. Our terms of service and driver partnership agreement are in place to ensure a fair marketplace. When you accept a booking, you enter a contractual obligation to complete the trip at the agreed price. Abiding by that agreement isn’t optional – it’s mandatory.

By sticking to these principles, you not only avoid penalties, you also help maintain GetTransfer’s reputation for safe, reliable service. The vast majority of our drivers do an excellent job and never break these rules. For those few who might be tempted to bend them: consider this message your final warning to cease any such behavior immediately. We owe it to our customers – and to your fellow law-abiding drivers – to strictly enforce these standards.

“Under no circumstances should any driver ask a passenger for additional money beyond the agreed price after accepting a booking. Not only is this practice illegal, it flagrantly violates GetTransfer.com’s terms and conditions – and it will result in your removal from our marketplace.”, Alexander Sapov, Co-founder and CEO, GetTransfer.com

Legal grounds:

It constitutes a violation for drivers to request additional payment from passengers beyond the price listed in the original offer, as the license agreement clearly states that the quoted transfer price must be final and inclusive of all the carrier’s expenses associated with the journey. Direct payment from passengers is permitted only in instances where a passenger has partially prepaid the fare online. However, in this case, the offer clearly indicated the final and total price, and the passenger had paid the fare in full. Therefore, the carrier had no right to request any additional payment beyond this agreed price.

The carrier’s obligation to GTR includes performing the transfer strictly in line with the conditions agreed upon with the passenger at the matching stage, and in general, ensuring the conscientious fulfillment of obligations towards both GTR and passengers. These obligations are accepted when carriers use the service, issue offers, and confirm the details of each transfer. In this instance, these obligations were also breached.
As an Information Society Service (ISS), GTR provides only software access, while the actual transportation service terms are agreed upon directly between carriers and passengers. Consequently, GTR does not monitor or control the actual execution of transfers. Nevertheless, to protect its reputation, the platform collaborates exclusively with carriers who maintain high professional standards and do not generate customer complaints about their conduct.

Relevant clauses of the License Agreement breached by the carrier:

3.3: The transfer price offered by the Licensee and accepted by the User via the platform includes all expenses related to the transfer, such as parking fees, toll charges, etc.
7.1(B)(i): The Licensee agrees that adherence to this agreement is lawful, its obligations are binding and valid, and specifically that the Licensee enters this agreement intending to fulfill all obligations to GTR and/or users honestly and completely, without intent to avoid obligations or engage in any fraudulent or unlawful activities.
8.1(S): The Licensee must carry out transportation strictly according to the conditions specified in the transportation contract agreed with the user.
8.1(T): In cases of partial prepayment, the Licensee must neither request nor accept additional payment from the user as full settlement until the transfer has concluded.

Addressing a High-Profile Incident in the UK

Many of you are aware of a recent incident that has drawn public attention. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his wife booked a long-distance transfer through GetTransfer last month for a journey from Italy to France. Unfortunately, this trip became high-profile for the wrong reasons: the assigned driver allegedly demanded an extra £590 (€700) in cash, even though the fare had already been paid in full before the journey began. This situation – now under investigation by journalist Ed Southgate of The Sun – is a textbook example of what drivers must not do.

We want to make a few points absolutely clear about this case:

The customer fulfilled their payment obligation. Mr. Lammy did pay the full fare through the platform upfront. The Foreign Office in the UK has confirmed that the fare was settled in advance, refuting the driver’s claim that any additional cash was owed. There was no misunderstanding about the price – the issue arose solely from the driver’s improper demand for more money after the fact.
GetTransfer’s payment policy protects drivers (and passengers). When a trip is completed successfully, the driver’s earnings for that booking are processed by GetTransfer. As of today, in this particular case, the driver’s payment is already in our system and – in line with our standard payout schedule – is due to be released by 23 May 2025. We adhere to a regular payment cycle for all drivers; attempting to bypass this by soliciting cash from the client not only violates our rules but is strictly prohibited.

We can understand the empathization with the driver’s feelings among drivers and I believe he was also tired – he made 7 hours ride one way to pick up passenger and he had to make another night shift 7 hours driving back, upon realizing he would be transporting a very high-profile passenger in his relatively old vehicle, covering a 7-hour journey each way, and it might be that he, as a regular driver, was unprepared for engaging in conversations typically led by high-profile individuals in cars; however, this does not serve as an excuse. Perhaps, influenced by conversations overheard within the intimate confines of the car, he became convinced his passengers were exceptionally important individuals, prompting him to impulsively assume he deserved additional compensation for security or other concerns – disregarding all established guidelines. Nevertheless, professionalism and compliance with GetTransfer policies must always take precedence over personal feelings or perceptions. Ultimately, despite our possible understanding of his sentiment grounds, this issue falls outside GetTransfer’s direct scope of responsibility. The driver’s scheduled payment will be processed on time, given that the ride was completed and confirmed by the passenger.

Consequences are underway. Because the driver in question chose to flout both the law and our terms, authorities became involved. Due to this breach of our terms, the driver has been permanently banned from providing future services through our platform. Also the driver allegedly drove off with the clients’ luggage in retaliation and has since been charged with theft by French police. We are cooperating with the ongoing investigation. Needless to say, this individual’s actions are not representative of the transfer driver community. Upon our internal investigation the driver was canceled from the platform for violating platform rules.

This incident is an unfortunate reminder of why our policies exist. We know that 99.9% of our drivers are professional and would never put themselves in such a situation. For those who might find themselves frustrated or confused about a fare or a payment timeline, the answer is never to pressure the client directly – it is to contact our support team. We will always work to resolve issues. But we cannot and will not tolerate rogue behavior that endangers clients or harms GetTransfer’s reputation.

“I appreciate David Lammy as a client also for keeping emotions in check as much as possible, having traveled at least half the route overnight with a driver who clearly did not meet his expectations and refusing to engage in the driver’s off-platform cash demand, he showed transparency, respect for the agreed terms and faith in due process. Instead of reacting emotionally and providing extra charge Lammy made his best to escalate the matter through the proper channels, modelling the wise, law-abiding conduct expected of a senior public servant”, Alexander Sapov, Co-founder and CEO, GetTransfer.com

Trustpilot Reviews and Our Service in Context

Some media coverage, including the aforementioned journalist, have pointed to online reviews – such as our Trustpilot rating – as a shorthand for our service quality. We want to address this transparently with our driver community. It’s important to understand the context behind ratings and the actual scale of GetTransfer’s operations.

First, let’s look at the numbers. Since our founding, GetTransfer has 2,000,000+ completed trips worldwide. We serve over 10,000,000 clients globally, across 180+ countries, which is an achievement built on consistent, satisfactory service. Yet only a tiny fraction of those millions of successful trips ever result in a review on sites like Trustpilot or other review platforms.You can observe the same pattern with Uber’s ratings on Trustpilot. This is a common pattern in travel and hospitality services: a small percentage of customers, often those who encounter issues, take the time to write public reviews, whereas the vast majority of happy travelers do not post online feedback. As a result, the snapshot of reviews online can over-represent negative experiences relative to the total.

To be clear, we take every customer complaint seriously and use feedback to improve. But a few hundred negative reviews must be put in perspective against the backdrop of millions of rides completed smoothly. Our current Trustpilot score, while not where we want it to be, is based on a statistically small sample of total users. Less than one percent of our total trips are reflected in those reviews. Meanwhile, our internal customer satisfaction metrics and repeat-booking rates tell a very positive story about rider experience. We are continuously working to convert more of our satisfied customers into public reviewers, and to address the concerns of any dissatisfied ones.

For you as drivers, what does this mean? It means that the work you do – providing a safe, pleasant journey for each client – directly impacts our reputation. Every successful trip can potentially lead to a 5-star review or a personal recommendation, even if it’s not posted online. The better service you provide, the more likely our overall ratings will improve over time. We encourage you to politely remind happy customers that they can share their feedback online. At the same time, know that one or two sensational stories in the press do not define GetTransfer. Your dedication and the millions of problem-free trips speak louder than a handful of complaints.

In summary, our Trustpilot and other review profiles are important, but they are just one part of a larger picture. The reality is that the vast majority of GetTransfer users have positive, hassle-free experiences – otherwise we would not see the continued growth and repeat usage that we do. As drivers, keep up the great work and understand how crucial your role is in maintaining and improving our service’s public image.

Past Driver Payment Delays Explained

Some of you who have been with GetTransfer for a while may recall the delays in driver payouts we experienced. Media reports have referenced these setbacks, so we want to be transparent about what happened and reassure you that the internal issue that caused those delays has been eliminated, and every day we are steadily increasing the volume of earnings and payouts to drivers.

The cause of the delays was an internal governance disruption, not a lack of funds or ill intent. In 2020–2024, GetTransfer faced a long, tough and unexpected sabotaje – essentially, a hostile attempt to take over the company. During this period, a hostile group of shareholders and Directors were actively blocking the company’s operations, including the fundraising activities. I described it recently as “the company’s hands were tied” – normal processes couldn’t function because of this internal sabotage. https://blog.gettransfer.com/about-us/interview-with-gettransfer-ceo-alexander-sapov/

The good news is that we overcome this challenge. The company’s founders and management regained control of GetTransfer’s operations. We have taken strong action: legal proceedings are underway to recover any losses incurred. We also learned lessons and implemented improvements. We rolled out an initiative to offer immediate payouts and accelerated debt repayment plans https://blog.gettransfer.com/about-gettransfer-com/repayment-solutions-and-stronger-future-for-drivers/ to help drivers who were impacted during that time. We help our drivers to increase their earnings https://blog.gettransfer.com/about-us/accelerate-earnings-and-repayment-with-these-strategies/ .

Clearing the Air – No Links to Sanctioned Entities

Another topic that has surfaced in discussions – particularly in light of the recent UK news story – is GetTransfer’s historical connection to Russia. We want to address this head-on so there is no confusion or doubt among our drivers or partners. We are an EU company, fully audited and committed to complying with all applicable sanctions legislation and regulations in the UK, EU, and globally. Our GetTransfer Sanctions Policy is publicly available and outlines our commitment to adhering to all applicable laws. Our corporate governance and compliance have been safeguarded by DLA Piper since establishment.

GetTransfer is a global marketplace based in Cyprus, and we have no ties to any sanctions countries, companies or individuals. It’s true that our platform was originally co-founded by entrepreneurs who are Russian nationals. In fact, my partner and I started GetTransfer back in the mid-2010s. At that time, we were a small startup focusing on affordable transfers for travelers, including routes to ski resorts. Like many tech startups, our founding team came from various backgrounds – in our case, most of us had previously worked on projects in Russia.

However, what matters is where we are now, in 2025. Over the past several years, GetTransfer has undergone significant changes in ownership and structure. All former investors or board members with “shadow” connections have exited the company this way or another. Pavel Zaitsev’s association with the company was discontinued due incompatibility with our organization’s ethical standards. We have established our presence all over the world – including our HQ in the EU – to better serve our global markets. Our team today is diverse and spread across various countries, and our regulatory compliance is aligned with EU laws and worldwide best practices. There is no influence, control, or funding from any sanctioned entity or individuals, as confirmed through independent legal reviews.

Why does this matter? As our drivers and partners, you might hear rumors or questions from customers and wonder if GetTransfer is a legitimate, independent company. You can confidently tell them: yes, we are. It is assured by DLA Piper. Our early days and who founded the company should not be conflated with company strong leadership management and how we conduct business today. The fact that a UK government department (the FCDO) confidently selected GetTransfer for a minister’s travel arrangements speaks volumes – they would not choose a company that is unvetted, compromised, or operating unlawfully, as many of our competitors comfortably do. We maintain a strong reputation in the industry and with regulators, and we intend to keep it that way.

We Want You To Know More About Our Commitment To Legal Compliance

At GetTransfer, we pride ourselves on being a compliant, transparent, and reliable service. We want to re-emphasize to every driver: our platform’s business model and your cooperation with it are built on a solid legal foundation that protects us all.

Firstly, GetTransfer is an Information Society Service (ISS) under EU law – not a transportation carrier. In practical terms, this means we function as a digital marketplace that connects passengers with independent transport providers (you, the drivers). Under European regulations, a platform classified as an “information society service” is not treated as a taxi or private hire operator. We do not set prices nor select drivers nor dictate how you perform your job beyond our marketplace rules; you set your prices, you ensure you have the proper licenses, and you contract directly with the passenger for the ride. This classification spares our drivers and partners from needless red tape, while still ensuring that all of you are properly licensed and vetted professionals in your respective locales. Many of you have asked how we can operate across so many countries – it is precisely because we adhere to this marketplace model, following all applicable e-commerce and transport laws, that we can. We stay on the right side of regulatory distinctions, allowing us to offer services in 180+ nations without compromising on legal compliance.

For drivers, this means you must also uphold your end of compliance: maintain your local taxi or hire licenses, insurance, and certifications as required by law. When you operate via GetTransfer, you are representing that you are a licensed professional in your area. This is non-negotiable – it keeps our platform safe and legal for everyone. Our commitment to legal standards is one reason organizations like the UK Foreign Office have chosen GetTransfer when arranging transport. In the recent case, sources confirmed that the Foreign Secretary’s office arranged his transfer via GetTransfer.com as a trusted booking service. They, like our 10 million other customers, expect us to operate within the law and to deliver on our promises of transparent pricing and dependable service.

Secondly, price transparency and reliability are at the core of our value proposition. Unlike some services, GetTransfer shows passengers the full price up front and ratings and reviews, with no hidden costs, and we stick to it. This is why demanding extra on the side (as discussed earlier) is so damaging. We have built tools to enhance trust: passengers can see driver ratings, vehicle types, and even driver-provided photos before accepting an offer. As drivers, you benefit from this transparency too – it ensures that when you get a booking, you know the trip details and the fare that you will be paid. There are no surprises, and any surcharges like tolls should already be factored into your bid. This clarity is one reason many clients, from individual tourists to government agencies, trust GetTransfer for critical journeys. They know exactly what they are getting, and they know we stand behind the service.

Lastly, our global scale and client base are proof of the robust reputation we have built together with you. Serving over 10 million customers around the world has only been possible because drivers like you deliver great service trip after trip. We’ve safely transported foreign dignitaries, business travelers, families on holiday, and everyday commuters. Each successful trip, whether it’s an airport pickup in New York or a ride to a remote village in the Alps, reinforces why GetTransfer was selected over other options: we offer competitive pricing, we follow through reliably, and we resolve issues fairly when they arise. Our partnerships with major travel agencies, corporations, and institutions are growing because we have demonstrated a strong track record. We intend to keep earning that trust every day.

Moving Forward Together

In conclusion, I want to speak directly to every driver in our community: thank you for being a part of GetTransfer and for your dedication to delivering excellent service. The vast majority of you already exemplify the professionalism and honesty that we expect. You are the reason why travelers around the globe trust us with their transfers.

Going forward, let’s continue to uphold the standards that make GetTransfer successful. This means following our rules and local laws, treating passengers with respect, and never cutting corners. When one driver does the wrong thing, it harms all of us by tarnishing the platform’s reputation. Conversely, when you go above and beyond – a friendly greeting, a helping hand with luggage, a safe and smooth ride – it strengthens our brand and leads to more bookings for everyone.

Thank you for reading this far. I’d also like to assure you that we will continue reducing our commission rates, and we anticipate you’ll lower your prices accordingly, of course always within the legal requirements and licensing regulations applicable to your region.

Sincerely,

Alexander Sapov

Co-Founder&CEO, GetTransfer.com

https://blog.gettransfer.com/author/alexander_sapov

About GetTransfer: GetTransfer provides premium vehicles at economy prices. It is an online marketplace offering private transfers, long-distance trips, and chauffeur-driven rides for travel, as well as suburban and intercity journeys. Operating in 180 countries, GetTransfer stands out by providing photos, descriptions, and ratings of all vehicles before the user makes a payment.

A Letter from CEO Alexander Sapov to Drivers Community In Relation to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy “Taxigate” Incident